2 year old still coughing after 4.5 weeks - is this normal?

[beabea81]

My 2 year old dd started off coughing 4 and a half weeks ago when she caught a cold. After a week she seemed to be a lot better, but then she seemed to pick up another nasty fluey virus on top of the cold & was really really ill with cold & flu symptoms & v high temp.

She started to get better again but then suddenly went downhill again v quickly with a temp of 102 & coughing so hard non stop that she was being sick & lips turning blue, struggling for breath etc. GP diagnosed chest infection & after a week of antibiotics she was much better.

But then all the symptoms got worse again a few days after the antibiotics finished, and as well as the chest infection she had also developed a sinus infection too, green mucus literally pouring from her eyes & nose : ( GP prescribed more antibiotics but she showed no improvement at all after 5 days on them so GP changed her to a different antibiotic a week ago now.

She seemed to be getting so much better on these, the sinus infection has almost completely cleared up a week on, she's almost back to normal in herself & even the cough that's lasted nearly 5 weeks now WAS getting much better a few days ago.

Then after her first day back at pre-school yesterday, she suddenly had a really bad night coughing non stop all night again & has not stopped coughing all morning. I have no idea why it's got worse again, is this normal?! She was indoors at pre-school in the warm so not sure why her cough would be made worse again by going back, would activity cause this? Maybe her body just isn't well enough yet?

Is coughing for this long almost 5 weeks normal? She is due back at the GP's again on Friday so can see us being prescribed another week of antibiotics! When does it get better?! So worried about her right now : (

I've just posted a similar tale!

Going on my ds, I'd expect another course of ab's and maybe an inhaler. Try cutting down on dairy, it's very mucous producing. I've also been dosing ds up on vitamins just in case.

thanks yes i did wonder about an inhaler, she had bronchiolitis when she was a baby & was prescribed one for that but GP hasn't suggested one for this, i will ask.

aaargh sitting here listening to the non stop coughing from her upstairs since she went to bed at 7.30 she's getting no sleep, then me & dh lie there in bed all night not sleeping too because of the constant coughing & worrying about her : (

Ds is much worse tonight and gp has cancelled as she's ill.... Duty doc for us tomorrow. Ds is in with me and dh in ds's bed. Best if one of us gets some sleep.

It's just horrible.

It's normal for a cough to linger after illness.

Hope it settles down. If its a dry cough, its probably worth trying an inhaler. But I'm no doctor. I was given one for my son, as I found it really helped when he had croup and was told so long as you don't over use, it can't do any harm to try.